Education Minister Jason Clare weighs in on US restrictions on foreign students, Harvard University ban

Education Minister Jason Clare has called the uncertainty over foreign students’ access to America’s most renowned university “really worrying,” pledging to assist affected Australian students.

The future of international students at Harvard University is in doubt after the Trump administration announced a ban on their enrolment for the next academic year after accusing the institution of failing to protect Jewish students and criticising its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Harvard has launched a legal challenge, but if it fails, new international students would be barred from enrolling while current ones would be forced to either transfer elsewhere or lose their legal status.

“It’s really worrying. And I feel for every Aussie student who’s at Harvard now about to graduate,” Mr Clare said in exclusive comments to The Nightly.

“[Ambassador] Kevin Rudd, the whole team at the Embassy in Washington are working with the US at the moment to obtain details about the decision so we can provide further information to them,” he said.

Mr Clare’s comments follow another alarming overnight development for the international education sector after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered a suspension of student visa processing to ramp up vetting of their social media.

A cable signed by Mr Rubio and seen by AFP orders embassies and consulates not to allow “any additional student or exchange visa... appointment capacity until further guidance is issued.”

It said the State Department “plans to issue guidance on expanded social media vetting for all such applications.”

Asked about the move, Mr Clare said, “what the US does is a matter for the US,” but added that it was “certainly not something that we would ever do here in Australia.”

Australia’s priority when identifying international students was to confirm they were genuine, “that they’re coming here to study, not as a backdoor way to work, and making sure that students have got the ability to fund their education,” he said.

On the question of the vetting of social media, he said he hoped young Australians would not be judged on the basis of their digital footprint.

“We live in a world now where everybody leaves a digital footprint, and it’s not just about going overseas, it’s employers look at these things as well,” he said.

“It probably makes most of us who are Gen X’s think about what our digital footprint would look like if we ever had one when we were younger.

But I also don’t want young Australians judged based on everything that they put on social media when they’re young.”

The Education Minister also urged the US to see the merit in collaboration with Australian universities as “some of the best in the world” amid ongoing concern about the slashing of research funding that does not conform to President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

Australian universities rely on funding from the US government for their research, receiving about $400 million in 2024, but several projects have already lost US government funding this year.

“It’s in the US interest to work with us and to work with Australian universities,” argued Mr Clare.

“Australia is about 0.3 per cent of the world’s population, but we contribute about 3 per cent of the academic research, the research that helps to change the world, so we’re an asset for universities in the US to collaborate with,” he said.

Mr Clare said the Government was “waiting for final advice” on the impact of the US changes, adding that Australia was also seeking to expand research opportunities around the world, including with India and in Europe.

“Australian universities and Australian researchers want to work with people who want to work with us,” he said.